


Runaway Grooms, Not Uncommon

by Fangirlingmanaged



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Established Relationship, Fluff, Just a smidge though, Little bit of angst, Married Couple, Multi, Self-Esteem Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, i love my children so much omg, they get it though, wedding fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 23:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12000180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlingmanaged/pseuds/Fangirlingmanaged
Summary: It's finally the day of Nat and Bucky's wedding! If only a certain one armed super soldier could get it together. Not to worry, though, Tony's got this.





	Runaway Grooms, Not Uncommon

**Author's Note:**

> Needed a little bit of fluff in my life after the week I've had so here y'all go :>

“We can’t start the wedding,” Steve pants as he bursts through the doors of the little room Natasha had been getting ready in, out of breath. He looks like he’s run a marathon, and his cheeks are flushed. He meets Nat’s eyes, and quickly drops his gaze. He’s intimidated by her to this day, and he has no problem admitting it. 

Pepper, who had been crouching next to the bride, slowly gets to her feet. She had been fixing the hem of Nat’s dress, but now she looks like she’s ready to go into battle. “What,” she states more than asks in that tone of voice that she uses when she’s dealing with the board’s bullshit. 

“I uh,  _we_  can’t find Bucky,” he says as he scratches the back of his head. Pepper’s glare intensifies and he stops, patting his hair back into place. Suddenly his tie feels a little stifling. He looks around the room to avoid their gazes. 

Tony, who had been sitting on an armchair in the corner of the room, looks up from his phone. He’s already fully dressed, has been for almost two hours thanks to Pep and Nat’s micromanaging, and has only been waiting to walk his friend down the aisle. He casts a quick look at Natasha and notices the slight trembling of her fingers as she finishes adjusting her earrings. She’s studding in her wedding gown, hair and makeup perfect, but this new wrench her groom has thrown in their plans is managing to break her composure. She had already been nervous, he knows, though most everyone wouldn’t have been able to tell just by looking at her. 

Steve, the poor schmuck, hurries into the room to try to reassure her that it’s fine. He’ll find his best friend, and they’ll carry on with the wedding. Pepper is already in damage control mode, but he knows it’ll be futile. Pep might be good at managing crises, and Steve may know his best friend well, but Tony knows men like Barnes. He knows what he has to do.

He pockets his phone and quietly makes his way to the door. Steve is better at comforting people, anyway, and Tony isn’t the type to take things sitting down. He throws a glance back, and catches Nat staring at him.  _I’ll get him for you,_ he thinks to her and hopes the message is conveyed in his grimace. Maybe it is, because she nods almost imperceptibly, or maybe she just thinks he’s on his way to inform her guests that the wedding is off. 

He walks by the hall where the guests are gathered on his way to search for the soldier, and catches Sam trying to placate an elderly man, _jesus christ Stan is still around,_ who keeps asking when the damn kids are going to get it together. Clint, standing at the front with the officiate, catches his eyes and mouths  _what the fuck is going on_ , but Tony just shrugs. He has a more important job at the moment, after all. He’s walking by the bathrooms on his way outside when a little person crashes onto his legs. 

“Hi, Uncle Tony!” the kid grins up at him, a tooth missing from her bottom row. Her dark hair is plaited down her back and adorned with flowers. He grins down at her and gently touches the crown of her head. 

“Hey, munchkin, what’s up?” 

“We’re waiting for Auntie Nat so we can start the wedding, and I can start my job,” she huffs a little put upon sigh. Tony can’t help but grin wider. He knows the kids had been looking forward to their part in their Aunt’s wedding. 

“We’re almost ready for you,” he promises. “But I have to go do something for your Uncle J real quick, so go back with your mom, okay? Make sure your brother doesn’t forget his part.”

“Okay!” she says cheerfully and skips away. He shakes his head with a smile and continues on his way. 

Once he’s outside, he takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the bright sun. James hates the cold, and Nat isn’t really particular to it either, but they both loath the summer, too. So they’re having their wedding on a beautiful spring day. Steve, the sap, had smiled and said  _new beginnings, it seems fitting for them, doesn’t it?_ Tony had thrown popcorn at him and mock-gagged, but he had been smiling. In his mind he had secretly admitted he was right. 

He walks out into the back garden, where the event planner is walking by with a clipboard making sure that everything is being set up according to what the bride and groom wanted. At least on that front, everything is going according to plan, so he leaves her to it. He hasn’t walked much when he spots his back, he’s sitting on a big boulder under the shade of a tree by the little pond they’d thought for pictures. He’s dressed in his tux, at least, though he doesn’t seem to be wearing his tie. Tony makes a mental note to ask him for it. 

“Hey, RoboCop,” Tony says quietly as he approaches him. He walks closer cautiously, and he had made sure he made enough noise to alert the man of his presence. It’s been a long while since he’s had an episode, but he has bad days sometimes. Days when his hand goes to his thigh or the back of his pants, looking for a weapon that’s no longer necessary, or when he grabs a little too tightly to someone who startles him. 

James just grunts in response. 

“Everyone’s waiting on you,” he says after a while of silence. When James doesn’t say anything else, Tony sighs and invites himself to the other rock; he makes sure his coattails don’t touch the ground. He’s quite sure he’d be skinned alive if he’s not presentable later. He looks out at the pond for a few minutes, but he’s an anxious person and he’s never been good at controlling his fidgeting, so soon he picks a flat looking rock and chucks it at the pond. It sinks on impact, and so he throws another. And another.  _plonk splash, plonk splash, plonk splash–_

 _“_ You’re shit at this Stark,” the man beside him says, and Tony snorts but chucks another rock. 

“I never had much chance to do this. I went maybe once or twice to the park with my old butler Jarvis, and he tried to teach me, but,” he doesn’t say anything else but lets his shitty throw speak for him. 

“I can tell,” the soldier deadpans. They fall into silence again, and Tony watches the other man from the corner of his eye. He keeps flexing his arm, the metal one, and the plates shift and move as he does. His dark eyes are transfixed on the movement of the shiny vibranium. 

“it’s getting late,” Tony says after a while. He casts a glance over his shoulder, but it’s most for show. They won’t come looking for them, but it’s enough to snap the other man from his reverie.

“I can’t marry her,” James says, and the tone of his voice is horrible. He doesn’t sound sad or annoyed; he’s merely resigned. Tony blink to dispel his memories, and focuses back on the present. “I can’t do that to her.”

“It’s a hell of a time to realize it,” Tony says with a snort. Barnes tenses next to him, and turns to glare at the mechanic. “It’s also not up to you.”

“Look, Stark,” the man begins and now h’s properly puffed up. Tony rolls his eyes. 

“No, see, you’ve done enough of the talking,” Tony turns around and puts up his hand. The one with the ring on his third finger. The other man falls silent. “And I don’t mean with me. Or even Steve and Nat who are the people that would have supported you more than anyone else. See, you’ve done enough talking in there,” he brings his index finger and taps James’s temple. “You’ve talked yourself in circles about how this is the worst idea you’ve ever had. How she’s better than you, how she doesn’t deserve to be put through all your shit; you’ve told yourself you’re doing her a  _favor_ ,” Tony spits the word like bile on his tongue. He’s said the same thing too many times for it to feel like anything but poison. “By breaking her heart, but you’re not, James. You’re not.”

“There is blood and vengeance on my hands, Stark!” Barnes all but shouts, springing to his feet. “The things that I’ve done–”

“Are no worse than the ones  _she_  has, either, James,” Tony says forcefully, now on his feet too. God, it’s like reliving one of the worst and best days of his life with someone else playing his part. It sends an all too familiar ache flare up in his chest. “It’s no worse than any of us has done. If we’re quantifying who is more worthy, then none of us are. We have all fucked up, in incredible and more creative ways than the last, and yet here we are. Trying our very fucking best to atone for the shit we have done, consciously or  _not_ ,” he stresses with a pointed glare that makes James walk away. “We are all here, as a team and a fucking  _family_ , despite the fact that maybe we don’t deserve it. Feel depressed, and helpless, and angry all you want, James, but don’t you ever feel like you’re not worth the love the people around you are giving you. Especially from your family, from  _us_ , because it takes a hell of a lot for any of us to trust each other. Let alone love each other like we do. Nat can count on  _one_  hand the people she loves as much as she loves you, and you  _know that, i know you know that.”_

James looks down at his feet, and though Tony looks away to give him time to compose himself, he still catches the way he’s blinking rapidly at the ground. He’s tense as a board, but he’s taking the slow breaths he’s been taught. Tony, in a moment of pure lack of self-preservation, says  _fuck it_ , and grabs hold of the other man. He wraps his arms around him, and pulls him close. It’s not the first time they’ve hugged, not by a long shot seeing as they’re both very touchy-feely once they get close to someone, but it’s up there in the awkwardness scale with their first one. 

“If you tell anyone about this I will end you,” Tony mutters before pulling away. Barnes chuckles quietly while he runs the back of his hand under his nose. Tony grimaces at him and pulls up his handkerchief from his back pocket.

James gives him a slightly wide-eyed look as he takes it, and chuckles away. This time, he sounds more like himself. “Why the hell do you have a handkerchief? I’m  _a hundred_ , and not even I carry these things.”

“Steve’s gonna cry at some point, and you know it. Now, shut up, and let me fix you,” Tony says with a mock glare. Barnes rolls his eyes, but obediently sits down on his rock again. Tony steps forward and pulls the scrunchie from his hair, he’d probably been tugging at it while having his freak out and now his face is framed in whisps of dark hair. So Tony pulls his hair back, and ties up neatly in the way he’s seen him favor. Next, he holds out his hand and Barnes grimaces but pulls his crumpled bow tie from his pocket. 

Tony rolls his eyes and does his best to straighten the fabric out. Once he thinks it’s passable enough, he loops it around the soldier’s neck and ties it with ease. Pepper will notice the wrinkles, and comment on his shitty tying skills, but it’s good enough for now. Plus, the soldier doesn’t look like it’s strangling him, the way he had at the fittings, so he counts it as a win. 

“All right,” Tony says as he steps back and claps his hands. James gets to his feet slowly, now looking unsure but not as though he’s going to run, and holds out his arms to the sides. “You look presentable,” the mechanic says with a grin. “Ready for Natasha to make you the happiest man alive?”

Barnes grins, his small shy smile that everyone so rarely gets but Nat manages without a single problem, and nods. “She already does,” he says quietly. IT sounds intimate, like a confession, and Tony feels the grin on his face soften. Dear God, but the man is smitten. Tony can’t blame him. 

“You just keep that in mind, Sergeant,” Tony drawls with a smirk. “That’s all that really matters.”

The soldier merely nods and then takes a deep breath. Tony just watches him, and he can’t help but grin. There’s something like melancholy in his chest as he reminisces, but then he catches the glint from the ring on his finger and the feeling goes away. He’d almost done it, almost messed up the best thing to ever happen to him, but he’d pulled back just in time. There was one thing in his life, at lease, that he had managed to get right. James smooths down his shirt and slacks one last time, and begins to take purposeful strides in the direction of the hall. 

When they’re at the doors, Tony claps the man on the shoulder one last time and gives him a friendly squeeze. “Let me go get your best man. He was with Nat last time I saw him.”

James nods as he walks towards the hall. Tony catches apprehension in his eyes, but it’s clearly overruled by determination. Good. The man is not stupid. 

“Hey, Tony?” the soldier calls from the entrance as Tony walks past him towards the dressing room his friends are in. The mechanic turns around with a raised eyebrow, the soldier doesn’t call him that often, and finds the other man grinning at him. “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Tony says with a soft smile of his own. 

When he reaches the dressing room, Tony almost gets his arm ripped from its socket as the door is wrenched back with his hand still on the knob. Nat is coming out, her skirts gathered in one hand, and a determined expression on her face. Pep is following with a similarly determined look about her, and Steve’s got his hands up in a placating gesture. This is, clearly, a mess in the making. 

“Whoa, I thought I was supposed to walk you down the aisle,” he says with the grin he uses to disarm the paps. Nat merely glares, so he drops the act quickly. 

“And you will,” the terrifying woman says sweetly. “Just as soon as I find the runaway idiot.”

“Well, he’s pretty easy to spot,” he says and now his grin is playful. “He’s about yay-tall, messy long hair, and the most smitten look for his bride I’ve ever seen a man sport,” he relishes the surprise on their face as he chuckles. “He’s also standing at the altar.”

They stare at him open mouthed for another second before they all snap into action. Nat gathers her skirts and walks back into the room. Pep follows her after snapping at him and Steve to go wrangle the guests to their seats and inform them that they’re going to get started soon. Steve, now with a little more color on his face, kisses Natasha’s offered cheek as he passes her and hurries out of the room to meet Tony. 

Tony, for his part, meets Nat’s fond glare and smiles brightly.  _Spasibo,_ she mouths at him.  _Prego_ , he mouths back and she smiles at him. She understands. 

“Hey,” the big blond calls his attention from the redhead. Steve’s big blue eyes are wide, as is the smile on his face. “How’d you find him?”

“I had a hunch,” Tony tells him quietly, and feels fingers wrap around his. There’s the feeling of warm metal touching his skin, and he grins down to their matching fingers. 

“Yeah?” Steve asks as he gets closer. One brawny arm wraps around Tony’s waist, and his grin widens. Yes, this is exactly where he loves most to be. 

“Yeah,” he replies quietly. One of his hands is wrapped around the lapel’s of the other man’s suit jacket. “Wedding jitters, you know, figured they weren’t uncomon.” He looks up to meet the Steve’s eyes, and knows he understands. 

“You okay?” He asks because he’s wonderful like that. Because he knows Tony better than most people. Because he loves Tony enough.

Tony just smiles before he leans up on his toes and kisses him. He enjoys the feeling of slightly-chapped lips and the beard he’s managed to talk him into letting grow in. He manages to lose himself into it until a sharp, “hey!” breaks them apart. They’re still wrapped around each other as their lips separate and they turn to find both Pepper and Natasha standing almost identically alike. Right down to the smiles on their faces. 

“It’s my wedding now,” Nat says as Pepper laughs. “You already had your time three years ago. I’m the one that’s supposed to be sappy and in love. You can’t start making out in random hallways, you’re part of the wedding party.”

Steve lets go of most of Tony, except his fingers which are tangled together, and rolls his eyes. “We had to start thirty seven minutes late when we couldn’t find you because you were too busy tongue dancing with Buck.”

“And  _then_ ,” Tony says with a big grin of his own, “we had to wait while you fixed your makeup because you threatened to kill us with your make up brush and a bobby pin if you weren’t perfect in the pictures.”

“Whatever,” Nat says as she flaps her hand around and lets Pepper retouch her makeup. “Just go make sure they’re ready.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Tony says with a lazy salute and lets Steve pull him away before she can find something to throw at him. 

Once at the doors of the hall, Steve turns to Tony and cups his hands around his face. He kisses him on the lips, sweetly and slow, and Tony has a hard time keeping the tears at bay. Today has been filled with too many memories of their own wedding, and he’s getting a little overwhelmed. He kisses back with fervor, though, until Steve pulls away. “See you at the altar, mhuirnín,” Steve murmurs quietly. 

“I’ll be the one with the lady in white,” Tony replies cheekily, and then blurts, “I love you.” He feels heat crawl up his neck, but it’s totally worth it for the sappy grin on his husband’s face. 

(Steve does, in fact, require the use of Tony’s handkerchief when Nat and Bucky seal the deal...

 

...But only because Tony had borrowed his half-way through James’s vows.)

**Author's Note:**

> To anyone waiting on my other fic to be updated, if I finish homework today I'll reward us all with another chapter. Y'all know uni is kicking my ass already xD


End file.
